Speech & Language of the Three-Year-Old

By Mickey Mellen | May 13, 2011

At age three, your child….

can match primary colors, and name one color.
knows night and day.
understands “yesterday,” “summer,” “lunchtime,” “tonight,” and “little-big.”
begins to obey prepositional phrases like, “put the block under the chair.”
uses words to relate observations, concepts, ideas, and relationships.
frequently practices by talking to himself.
knows his or her last name, sex, name of street on which he/she lives and several nursery rhymes.
can tell a story or relay an idea to someone.
has a sentence length of 3-4 words.
has a vocabulary of nearly 1,000 words.
can produce consistently m, n, ng, p, f, h, and w.
may repeat sounds, words or phrases, which is perfectly normal at this age.
can draw a circle and vertical line.
can sing songs.
expresses fatigue verbally.
can stay with one activity 8 or 9 minutes.
asks “what” questions frequently.

You can stimulate your three-year-olds speech and language by…

continuing to extend his conversation.
using words he has trouble with frequently in your speech.
teaching your child relationships of words, objects, and ideas.
talking about similarities or differences between things.
encouraging your child to tell stories using books and pictures.
letting your child play with other children.
reading longer stories to your child.
paying attention to your child when he’s talking – remembering that repeating words and sounds is normal during this period of growth.

For more questions about the speech and language of children please visit https://www.pediaspeech.com/!